3 Crundwell vehicles sell for more than $35,000

DIXON – Three vehicles – the last of former Comptroller Rita Crundwell’s tangible assets – were auctioned this week for a total of $35,900.

A 2005 Chevrolet Silverado sold for $15,100, a 2003 Pace American trailer sold for $11,800, and a 2004 Jeep Liberty – which Crundwell was seen driving around Dixon after her arrest – brought in $9,000, said Jason Wojdylo, chief inspector for the Asset Forfeiture Division of the U.S. Marshals Service.

It will be several months before Dixon sees the more than $10 million in total from the sales of Crundwell’s former assets, which included her horses, jewelry, furniture and real estate.

A federal judge on Feb. 14 sentenced Crundwell to 19 years, 7 months in prison for wire fraud.

Crundwell admitted to taking nearly $54 million over 22 years from the city’s coffers to fund a lavish lifestyle and her nationally renowned quarter horse business.

Last week, Crundwell was moved from the Boone County Jail to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago. It’s a short-term holding facility for federal prisoners.

The former comptroller still awaits a long-term federal prison assignment. As Crundwell had asked, U.S District Judge Philip Reinhard will recommend a federal prison close to Beloit, Wis., home of her longtime boyfriend, Jim McKillips.

The closest facility is the low-security Waseca Federal Correctional Institute in Waseca, Minn., which is about 300 miles from Beloit.

Lee County State’s Attorney Anna Sacco-Miller also suggested a federal prison in Texas could be a likely destination.